The Guide to the Ultimate Retargeting Banner

January 8, 2015

You know the importance of retargeting as an effective way to remind prospects about your product or service and keep your company fresh in their minds. Follow-up emails, social media ad placement and other marketing strategies are options for retargeting, and you may be finding various levels of success with conversion. However, one powerful tactic that you might not be using is the retargeting banner. This tool is highly effective at jogging the memory of your potential customers and bringing them back to your site, but there are certain dos and don’ts you should keep in mind.

The simple truth is that banners convert leads

You’re no stranger to banner ads that promote a variety of products and services, as they grab your attention at the top of a page or side margin when you’re browsing the Internet. They’re quite successful at converting leads for a variety of reasons when done right, through proper design elements like colour, text and placement. Banner advertising is also effective in establishing brand awareness and keeping it consistent across various sites and platforms.

Banners are especially effective when retargeting

It’s one thing to push a banner based on an keyword ad auction or site partnership; delivering meaningful content to a page visitor as part of a retargeting effort is an entirely different approach. Retargeting is a means of providing a user information because of a search or keywords they’ve previously used. They’ve already expressed interest in a topic or product, so you know your retargeting banner is highly likely to strike a chord and serve as a reminder. Solutions like AdRoll contribute to the retargeting process because they connect companies with site visitors that were, at some point, seeking information on a topic related to that organisation’s offerings.

Essential elements when creating retargeting banner ads

Of course, you’ll personalise your banner ad based on your brand and what you offer, but there are certain components you must carefully consider.

Colour

How it Converts Leads: Every colour elicits a certain emotional response from the people who view your banner ad. You need to decide what feeling you want to convey and choose a coordinating shade. Your colour choice converts leads because you appeal to an emotion that inspires them to act.

Specific Tips: Use red sparingly, as it connotes anger and danger. Shades of green or blue are easy on the eyes, and convey a feeling of calm; depending on the focus of your banner you may want to use them in small doses. Purple hues can be quite effective if you want to impress your product or service as being luxurious and elegant.

Copy

Why it’s Attractive: The text you use in your retargeting banners will convert leads if it’s short and incorporates one or more font sizes. Your potential customers are drawn to the copy of your banner ad second, after the color catches their eye.

Design Pointers: Keep your ad copy to less than one or two points, not necessarily in proper sentence format. Get their attention with an offer and then make your call to action simple and straightforward. Most importantly, you need to deliver on any promise you make in the banner.

Placement

Role in Lead Conversion: Once a potential customer lands on a site, their eyes are going to do a quick scan toward the top and side margins of the page. They’re looking for the information directly related to their search, which may or may not be related to your ad. However, the one-over they do is your opportunity to position your banner in front of them and inspire them to click through.

Recommendations: Of course, the real estate at the top of a page is highly sought-after, which makes it the most expensive. Consider side ads to keep costs low. Also, make sure you stick to the standard banner ad sizes for the placement you choose, as these do affect whether your prospects are drawn to them.

As you can see, it’s wise to use the retargeting banner to remind your prospects about your products or services; still, you need to properly balance the essential components if you want to make retargeting banners work for you. The task may be above and beyond your expertise if you’re not a marketing professional, but there are experts out there that can help you with retargeting efforts. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to convert the leads who have already show interest in what your company has to offer.